I had a Tesla 2018-2022, and switched to a competing EV brand at that point. The fact that Tesla has removed sensors since then while competitors have added says a lot.
My car doesn't even have LIDAR but it has 5 radar sensors (corners & forward) so it can do all sorts of neat stuff. For example, it has actual working adjacent lane blindspot detection, which Tesla never dialed in. It also can warn you about oncoming cars at intersections or when backing out of parking spots. It even flashes lights on the doors if you try to open a door when a car is coming in the adjacent lane.
None of that is full self driving but it leaves me wondering what Tesla can ever accomplish with cameras-only.
Tesla literally didn't have it in 2018, and slowly added a poor implementation of it over time. Recall the card hardware had no light not he mirror or in the window sill to alert you, so their early version required looking at the screen.
Current Teslas at least actually have some sort of light in the sill, but again its using cameras only, no radar, sonar, whatever.
That’s really surprising. Whenever I rent a car, I’ve relied on that feature as standard issue for modern vehicles. It’s like selling a Tesla without an air conditioner.
Tesla's were ahead of the curve on most things when they first came out. Tesla has refused to join the year model model, so their changes have been haphazard, often regressive, and ultimately very slow.
They still are ahead on some technologies, with the Cybertruck's one and only interesting technology its drive-by-wire system, but the industry has caught up and overtaken Tesla with the relentless progress of the year model.
That and during the COVID supply chain crisis, Musk clearly shifted to "what can we remove from the car to make it cheaper" mode. This does not drive tech innovation but it does provide profitability. A lot of the decisions re: removal of sensors, stalks, etc flow from that.
And as others have pointed out - not only is Musk insistent on camera-only, but they are not even good state of the art cameras.
For years they were using cameras so bad that even though it provided a "security system recorder" for your car, you couldn't make out license plates most of the time. Kind of useful to be able to read the license plate if you want to actually have anything to give to police when a car hit & runs you.
They only in a recent year updated the cameras to.. still not even 4k.
Sure reading license plates is not the primary purpose of these cameras, but then again .. I'm supposed to trust my life to a car that "sees" with 2010 era iPhone cameras?
It is, in fact, illegal for a human to drive in California with vision comparable to the Tesla HW3 cameras.
California minimum vision requirement to operate a vehicle is 20/40 vision [1] which corresponds to a arc resolution of 30 pixels per degree of field of view [2].
HW3 cameras have a horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels [3]. There are three front-facing cameras with field of view (120, 50, 35 degrees) and different focal lengths with optimal distance (60, 150, 250 meters) placed next to each other preventing usage of binocular vision meaning their front-facing cameras are “one-eye” driving.
The cameras have a arc-resolution of ~11 pixels per degree up to 60m, ~25 pixels per degree up to 150m, and ~36 pixels per degree up to 250m. That corresponds to ~20/120 below 60m, ~20/50 at 150m, and ~20/30 at 250m.
In comparison, you are considered legally blind if operating with 20/200 vision which their below 60m camera just barely surpasses. Up to 150m, their cameras fail to meet minimum vision requirements to operate a vehicle in California.
Even on HW4, the 120 degree camera for below 60m, which is the majority of complex high-acuity maneuvers, only has a horizontal resolution of 2896 pixels which is only ~24 pixels per degree corresponding to ~20/50 vision which is below the minimum vision requirements in California.
It's crazy cuz my 2022 BMW has 4k front facing camera (2x the brand new Tesla HW4 resolution), on top of the array of other cameras + 5 radar modules.. and.. they don't pretend they can FSD with that.
My car just has really really good highway ADAS. Which is all that most people need.
My car doesn't even have LIDAR but it has 5 radar sensors (corners & forward) so it can do all sorts of neat stuff. For example, it has actual working adjacent lane blindspot detection, which Tesla never dialed in. It also can warn you about oncoming cars at intersections or when backing out of parking spots. It even flashes lights on the doors if you try to open a door when a car is coming in the adjacent lane.
None of that is full self driving but it leaves me wondering what Tesla can ever accomplish with cameras-only.